A reminder of
the Sutra text: The Emptiness-Ruling Spirit named Producing Auspicious
Wind obtained the liberation door of fathoming the boundless state of
bodily characteristics.

This great calamity that is
threatening the world is a major catastrophe of fate. As it is said,
“It is fate and cannot be avoided.” Who is included in this fate and
who is not? The character shu, which means fate, also means number. Who
is included in this number? I didn’t want to talk about this, but it’s
simply too dangerous. If I didn’t talk about it, people wouldn’t be
able to turn their minds around. Now if everyone can turn their minds
around, then the calamity can be averted. This calamity does not
involve only one country; it is a calamity that affects the whole
world. Now we have two Bodhisattvas who have resolved to do
three-steps-one-bow to pray for world peace. Most people regard that as
a very stupid and dumb way to act. In fact, the two of them are using
this dumb and old-fashioned method to subdue the comet and prevent it
from coming to destroy the planet. They are thus saving the lives of
all the living beings in this world.

This calamity was brought into
being by the karma of the living beings of the entire world. However,
if each one of us can change from bad to good, and turn our minds
around, that will produce auspicious wind. And when auspicious wind is
produced, it can turn this world around. Heobtained
the liberation door of fathoming the boundless state of bodily
characteristics. This Emptiness-Ruling Spirit is sure to
carry out his responsibilities, so now the text says that he attained
to fathoming the boundless state. To fathom is to understand, to
achieve enlightened penetration—in this case to the boundless state.
What is the boundless state? It is that of the Buddha’s body being like
empty space. The body of the Buddha resembles empty space. “If someone
wishes to understand the Buddha’s state, he should purify his mind so
it is like empty space.” Since the Buddha’s body is like empty space,
it is called the boundless state. In this boundless state, the body has
no characteristics, its characteristics being no characteristics. It
has appearance yet no appearance, no appearance and yet appearance.
This kind of state is the inconceivable state of the Flower Adornment,
a state which ordinary beings are unable to conceptualize or
understand. This Emptiness-Ruling Spirit entered that door to
liberation.

Does anyone have any opinions?

All of you should realize that
the present threat is billions of times greater than that of atomic or
nuclear explosions. The pending disaster is incredibly formidable.
We’ll have to see if our two monks can turn it aside or not. That’s why
I told them when they left, “If you’re not sincere, don’t come back to
see me.” That’s my old method, just as when you went to Taiwan and I
told you that if you didn’t maintain my rules, you should not come back
to see me. And if Heng Ch’ien doesn’t translate the Wonderful Dharma
Lotus Flower Sutra well, he shouldn’t come back to see me either.
Ultimately what use is there in seeing me? It’s useless; but I still
would not let people see me.

The Liberation Door of Emptiness-Ruling Spirit
No. 4

The Emptiness-Ruling
Spirit named Securely Dwelling Apart from Obstacles obtained the
liberation door of being able to dispel the obstacles of karma and
delusions of all living beings.

The next Emptiness-Ruling
Spirit is named Securely Dwelling Apart from
Obstacles. Being apart from obstacles means being free from
all impeding obstructions. Securely dwelling refers to being firmly
established on the Ground of Not Moving, dwelling securely in
dhyana-samadhi, dwelling securely in a still and quiet place—all of
that is securely dwelling. What did this Emptiness-Ruling Spirit
obtain? She obtained the liberation door of being able to
dispel the obstacles of karma and delusions of all living beings.
The ability to dispel presumes that something exists to begin with, but
that one can get rid of it and make it disappear. In this case it is
the karma of all living beings which is dispelled, and it is their bad
karma. Then what about their good karma? It should not be dispelled.
The more good karma there is, the better. As to bad karma, the less
there is, the better. Delusions involve doubts, that is, unresolvable
aspects; and aspects of confusion—lack of understanding. Obstacles are
hindrances on the path of Bodhi.What are those hindrances on the Bodhi
Way? They are afflictions. And yet afflictions are Bodhi, so why should
one need to dispel them? They should be transformed, so afflictions
turn into Bodhi; so lack of understanding turns into understanding and
becomes Prajna; so evil karma becomes good karma. That is what is meant
by obtaining the liberation door of dispelling the obstacles of karma
and delusions of all living beings.

The Liberation Door of Emptiness-Ruling Spirit
No. 5

The Emptiness-Ruling
Spirit named Vast Stride Wondrous Cowl obtained the liberation door of
universally contemplating and reflecting upon the sea of vast, great
practices.

The next Emptiness-Ruling
Spirit is named Vast Stride Wondrous Cowl.
She obtained the liberation door of universally contemplating
and reflecting upon the sea of vast, great practices. Her
contemplation is universal in that she universally contemplates the sea
of vast, great practices cultivated by all living beings. First she
contemplates, and then she reflects. She contemplates the sea-like
vastness of living beings’ conducts and reflects upon the great expanse
of beings’ dispositions. She contemplates potentials and entices with
teachings, speaking Dharma according to the person and universally
crossing over all living beings. The sea of vast great practices refers
to limitless and boundlessly many doors of practice. Each individual
living being has his or her individual causes and conditions, and the
particular kind of Dharma door which he or she cultivates needs to
resonate with that individual, or else there will be no beneficial
interaction. Hence this Emptiness-Ruling Spirit achieved that kind of
state of the Buddha and understood the type of door to liberation that
is called the liberation door of universally contemplating and
reflecting upon the sea of vast, great practices.

The liberation door of Emptiness-Ruling Spirit
No. 6

The
Emptiness-Ruling Spirit named Unobstructed Blaze of Light obtained the
liberation door of light of great compassion which universally rescues
and protects all living beings from difficulty.

The next Emptiness-Ruling
Spirit is named Unobstructed Blaze of Light.
What door to liberation did she attain? She obtained the
liberation door of light of great compassion, which universally rescues
and protects all living beings from difficulty. As to great
compassion: compassion pulls beings out from suffering. She is able to
employ the brilliance of Prajna wisdom and use a greatly compassionate
attitude of mind to safeguard all living beings. Those beings are
within the sea of suffering of birth and death. They are born and then
they die, die and are reborn, revolving in a pointless cycle of births
and deaths. They cast off one life only to take up another, yet still
feel they’re involved in good business and that it’s a lot of fun.
Therefore they bob and sink without thinking of getting out. That’s
what’s meant by the difficulty that all living beings have.
“Difficulty” refers to suffering and difficulty, as in the line from
the Heart Sutra: “...crossed beyond all suffering and difficulty.” The
hardship is that of birth and death, and this Emptiness-Ruling Spirit
rescues and protects all living beings from that hardship, enabling
them to reach this door to liberation.

The liberation door of Emptiness-Ruling Spirit
No. 7

The Emptiness-Ruling
Spirit named Unobstructed Supreme Strength obtained the liberation door
of strength of blessings and virtue for universal entry to everything
without attachment.

Heng Shou (Gwo Hu): The
Emptiness-Ruling Spirit named Unobstructed Supreme Strength obtained
the liberation door of strength of blessings and virtue for universal
entry to everything without attachment. This Emptiness-Ruling
Spirit has “Unobstructed Supreme Strength” as her name. What is supreme
strength? It is exceptional power that nothing blocks or hinders. No
other power surpasses hers, and so she is known as the Emptiness-Ruling
Spirit Unobstructed Supreme Strength. The state into which she entered,
the door to liberation that she attained, is called the liberation door
of universal entry to everything without attachment. She pervasively
enters into nonattachment to anything. Since she has no attachments,
she can enter into all locations everywhere without becoming attached.
That’s the meaning of universal entry to everything without attachment.
Because this Emptiness-Ruling Spirit named Unobstructed Supreme
Strength can universally enter into nonattachment to anything, she has
the strength of blessings and virtue. This is her door to liberation.Venerable Master: Would any of you
like to comment on the meaning of any of the four passages of Sutra
text that were lectured today about the four Emptiness-Ruling Spirits?
If so, bring up your opinions quickly for us to investigate together.Heng Yin: As to the translation of
離障安住 (li zhang an zhu), 安住 (an zhu) consists of two characters, the
first of which is the same character as in 平安 (ping an) which means
“peaceful.” The second character is 住 (zhu) which means dwelling, as in
“without dwelling anywhere.” Is the combined meaning then “peacefully
dwelling,” or do the two characters form a compound with the single
meaning of being somewhere. My question is, when we translate the two
characters into English, do we have to use the two words “peacefully”
and “dwelling,” or does 安住 (an zhu) just have a single meaning?